1) FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The field of this invention generally relates to hand accessories useful for improving power transmission and improving control of swinging movement between the hands of a human and the handle of an implement such as a baseball bat, thereby transmitting a greater amount of power and control of flight to a baseball that is struck with the baseball bat.
2) DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
The subject matter of the present invention is an improvement over the structure defined within U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,454, issued Dec. 3, 1991, and U.S. pending patent application 07/783,176 filed Oct. 28, 1991, both carrying the title Hand Accessory and both invented by the present inventor.
The concept of the present invention is going to be discussed in terms of swinging of a baseball bat. However, it is to be considered to be within the scope of this invention that this invention could be applied in conjunction with any implement for swinging that implement as required.
When swinging a baseball bat, there is a certain amount of pivoting of the bat relative to each hand of the user. The user places both hands on the baseball bat with the hand located nearest the butt of the baseball bat being defined as the leading hand, and the hand located above the leading hand (nearer the striking area of the bat) being defined as the trailing hand. The center of the pivoting action is near the middle of the palm of each hand. The portion of the bat extending from the middle of the palm upward toward the contact area of the bat will move away from the body of the user during the swinging motion with the portion of the bat extending from the middle of the palm downward toward the butt of the bat moving towards the body of the user. This movement occurs at the start of the swing just after the bat leaves the "cocked" position. As the hands attempt to propel the bat forward, not only does the palm and web area of the hand push outward, but the hands tighten their grip with the fingers pulling inward (towards the user) and downward (toward the ground). At this time, there is a strain on the ring and little fingers of the hands in attempting to bring about this rotation of the bat as the inertial force of the bat is moving against those fingers.
When gripping and swinging a baseball bat, there is a space between the handle and the base of the thumb and the forefinger which is filled with a loose compressible web of skin. This area of the hand is a low-density space which contains no bone or muscle. When the user's hand moves forward as the user swings the baseball bat prior to impact, the baseball bat handle inertially moves momentarily from the fingers back into this web of skin. At this time, the user loses power and control in the swinging movement. Just immediately prior to impact or even just after impact, the baseball bat will return into the fingers as it catches up to the forward motion of the hand. However, power and control have been lost. At the force of impact, if the ball does not strike the optimal point (or "meat") of the bat, the bat will again recoil slightly into the web compressing such, this compressing of the web absorbs and dissipates energy otherwise transmissible to the ball thus causing a weaker strike of the ball.
There is a need for a device to improve control and force transmission between the hand and the handle of the bat. The device should also reduce strain on the fingers. The present inventor has obtained a U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,454 and has a U.S. patent pending 07/783,176, previously mentioned, both of which are directed toward the elimination of the above-described weakness of the human hands when gripping to swing a thin-handled instrument such as a baseball bat. Success was achieved in the aforementioned patent and patent pending for the lead hand (left for right-hand hitter and right for left-hand hitter) in the swinging motion. However, the present inventor encountered difficulty in obtaining the maximum efficiency within the trailing hand (right hand for a right-hand hitter and left hand for a left-hand hitter).
The devices described in the aforementioned patent and patent pending did not achieve the amount of comfort, control or bat speed desired by the inventor. It should be noted that it has been found when a certain change results in an increase in bat speed it usually also increases comfort and control, and vice versa, so when describing a feature which, for example, improves comfort, it should be understood that reference is being made only to the most noticeable benefit and that the other benefits of speed and control are probably also improved by the same feature.
It was found that the elimination of the discomfort to the hand, including the fingers, could not be accomplished by merely rounding or reducing the amount of material in the affected areas of the hand accessory device. Every section of the hand accessory device had to be angled correctly in order to bring about perfect distribution of force throughout the strong and weak areas of the hands. If one section of the device was wrong, it might cause the correct sections of the device to also be wrong. Thus, the intent of the present application is to redefine the prior art devices shown and described within the aforementioned U.S. patent and U.S. patent pending to improve the performance of these prior art devices.